Gerhard Richter tapestries

I wish I could take the next flight out to see these amazing new works in person! I love it when an artist uses a new medium. The Gagosian Gallery in London is showing a group of four tapestries based on a single abstract painting by Gerhard Richter. 

Going from paint to wool, Richter’s abstraction gives a traditional medium new excitement. Based on Abstract Painting (724-4) (1990), they are an example of his distinctive approach to non-representational painting. The visual effect of the tapestries is Rorschach-like, multiplying the forms and colors of the original canvas. Woven on a mechanical loom, each tapestry repeats four times the image of one area of the painting. Since the tapestries are all derived from the same painting, they are similar yet different. This exhibition is a must-see for all creative types. The way Richter takes his style of painting and transfers it to a new medium is amazing and may inspire you to experiment with surface, texture and materials in your own work.

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/gerhard-richter--may-30-2013
http://www.gerhard-richter.com

artist susanna bauer

"I go walking. I find a leaf, a piece of driftwood - or sometimes it finds me.  I take it home and its new life begins. "

Susanna Bauer describes her works as ‘a series of individual stories that evolve and shape themselves in the process of making’. She has worked in the television and film industry as a model maker for over 16 years, making objects like King Arthur's chalice, cheeses for Wallace and Gromit, miniature buildings, robots and spaceships! Always driven by a love of making and working with her hands, she now makes small sculptural objects with found natural materials. She uses crochet as her method of creating, working with very fine hooks and thin yarn to transform her finds into objects that carry their own narrative. Leaves are shaped into cubes or become encircled in delicate lace. Pieces of driftwood grow woolen cocoons or transform into abstract figures. Her work explores the tension between fragility and strength, form and texture, preconception and interpretation.

http://www.susannabauer.com

artist ann roth

North Carolina weaver Ann Roth has been weaving since 1975. It was at a weaving workshop with a basket maker that "everything came together," she says "That was the moment I turned into a weaver. I bought my loom in 1975 and have used the same one ever since."

"I got into textiles by way of my grandmother, who taught me to sew. That got me into making my own clothes, all the way through college. I loved the fabrics, colors, textures," she said.

Before she begins to weave on her loom, she applies color to a white cloth that acts as her canvas. Before she cuts the lengthwise strips, she dyes the entire piece of fabric using a Japanese process called shibori to create patterns by wrapping, binding, folding and clamping.

For the crosswise fabric, she first measures out the strips then dyes those using ikat, a Japanese resist-dyeing method. Weaving together the warp and weft, she constructs a composition of color and texture. Color is central to all of Roth's work. Using the dyed strips, she can layer color in interesting ways. "When you look at the world, the first impression you get is color," said Roth, "It's an energy source for me. I like subtle combinations; I like bold combinations."

Artist Statement: I play with color and pattern to create the illusion of layered, deep and contemplative spaces in my weavings. Printed fabrics and textile structures, historic textiles from many cultures, and the landscape provide inspiration for my work. For the warp, whole cloth is shibori-dyed and ripped into ½” strips. For the weft, 1” strips of cloth are measured and ikat-dyed. Variations in the overlapping of colors in the warp and weft create subtle and dramatic forms and color contrasts.

My tapestries are contemplations on:
Edges and transitions
Passages
Letting go, fortuitous miscalculations
Finding structure, fighting structure
Patterns and rhythms: pebbled beaches, fallen leaves

Central Asian and Japanese ikats,
woven and printed fabrics, ocean waves,
structures made and found
Color: spring, nature, gardens, weather and atmosphere,

energy, quiet, contradictions,
surprises, nuances
Intention, chance
Reflection and release
What if?
Why not?

Take a look at more of her work here:
http://www.annrothtextiles.blogspot.com
http://handeyemagazine.com/content/different-visual

woven flower screen

An interesting huge woven screen wall hanging that I saw in Anthropologie London!